Yes it does work on your alloys, latest cleaning secret from down under.

Not as mad as it sounds, our distributor down under says the OzKleen Kitchen Cleaner has taken the DIY car detailer fans a storm. We tried it ourselves on white alloys and they came up a treat. Available from Waitrose and Wilkinson. Do try on an inconspicuous area first just in case!

BMW is convinced its current transmission policy of eight-speed automatics, seven-speed dual-clutches and six-speed manuals is the perfect combination, according to its small and midsize cars boss, Klaus Frolich.

BMW chose this weekend’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este to unveil its planned MX-5 rivalling open top Mini in concept form. Called the Mini Superleggera Vision, the stunning concept has been designed in co-operation with the iconic Italian design house to incorporate modern Britishness with added Italian flair.

The 2015 general election is on the horizon, but how are politicians planning to fix our roads, cut motoring costs and help drivers?

With the European Elections on 22 May, and the General Election date set for 7 May 2015, Auto Express has asked four political parties a number of questions to see which one is doing the most for you, the motorist.

Those of us who enjoy cars are so starved of TV entertainment related to our hobbies that we will watch just about anything. Most of the car shows in America tend to be competitions to see who can fit the biggest big-screen TV in the dashboard of whatever car they’re modifying. There’s never much emphasis on provenance or history, or even who originally built the car.

The next step in Twisted’s slow-burning plan to transform the once humble Defender into a do-it-all upmarket offering.

Previously – leaving its brilliant V8-engined offering aside – the Yorkshire-based tuner had contented itself with modifying Land Rover’sestablished lineup; now it intends to offer the bigger 3.2-litre TDCi from the Ford Ranger (and Transit) as a swap-out option.

I went to see Bentley in Crewe on Wednesday for reasons that will become apparent in a few weeks time, and was lucky enough to be given a tour of the factory. For all those who think Bentley is now just a badge and its products mere VWs differentiated by as small and superficial degrees as deemed necessary to charge a substantial six figure sum for even the very cheapest, I’d like to offer some statistical reassurance.

In a typical VW factory, 80 per cent of the workers are on the line, with 20 per cent involved in building specialised off-line assemblies. At Bentley these numbers are precisely reversed. While on the line a Mulsanne will spend 90 minutes at each station before moving on. A Nissan Micra spends 61 seconds.

Even a Continental, whose bodies arrive pre-painted and are merely assembled in Crewe, takes 125 hours to turn into a car: a VW Polo takes 10 in its entirety, less time than is taken to assemble a single picnic table for a Mulsanne.